Lilies: Beautiful, versatile, hardy! Plant bulbs now

Superb as garden plants, beautiful as long-lasting cut flowers, and ideal container plants, lilies boast a hardiness that belies their fragile beauty. There are lilies for sun, lilies for shade, tall and/or short selections, and the fragrant varieties can perfume an entire neighborhood. And right now is the time to plant them!

Available in an incredible array of colors, lily species come in three basic types: upward facing, trumpet, and pendant.

The three-fold requirement of all of them is this: Heads in the sun, Feet in the shade, No wet feet! Light or dappled shade is appreciated by most of them, good drainage is essential, and good garden soil slightly on the acidic side (Hooray, that’s what we’ve got!) with a high content of organic matter is ideal.

Burpee’s Bulb book by John E. Brya n* is the best compendium I’ve seen on the many hybrids, Asiatic, Trumpets, Orientals and the wild parents from which they were bred. But while educating one’s self on the many facets of lilies is commendable, we gardeners can reap the benefits of all those dedicated hybridizers by simply enjoying lilies in our own landscapes.

Their drama is such that only one plant or a small grouping can be a garden showstopper. A great mass or swathe of them can be breathtaking.

Whether you choose the purity of white, the dazzle of spotted, color-edged beauties like Stargazer, or one of the multitude of colors (as witness my photo), to serve as a focal point, your lilies will serve you for decades.

As all bulbs, lilies must be planted in the fall, since they need a cold, dormant period. So choose your spots, visit our local nurseries (NOT big-box stores, please!), select the varieties you want – making sure they are hardy in out Zone 4-5 climate, make your purchases and plant as follows.

Prepare your soil to a depth of at least 12 inches, so as to plant lilies with a good 8 inches of soil over them. Tall trumpet types need to be spaced 24 inches apart (yes, even for groupings), with shorter types, Asiatics, etc., 12 inches apart.

After planting, water the bulbs in to settle the soil around them. If the winter is very cold, mulching is helpful, not so much to protect the bulbs as to prevent frost heaving the bulbs upward. Their deep planting is important. By the way, you can top the deep-planted lilies with shallower-planted daffodil/narcissus bulbs if you wish. In spring, their early blooming display will fade out to be followed by the lilies in summer.

In the spring, as soon as shoots appear, feed with a balanced fertilizer or bulb food. Repeat as the product directs until buds form, and then stop. Simply keep the soil moist but not wet through the growing season.

Important: When the flowers have finished blooming, remove the blooms so that seed is not produced, but leave the stems until the foliage has become brown. Only then can they be cut down.

The stem stores the food for the bulb, and if you accidentally break a springtime stem, you will have no flowers on the plant that year. It follows that when you cut lilies for bouquets, leave as much of the stem as you can.

Leave bulbs undisturbed for years. Only when the bulbs become very overcrowded and flower production has declined, carefully lift, divide and replant. Otherwise, “Do not disturb.” Like peonies and roses, lilies can grow happily in the same location for well over a decade.

Lilies make wonderful container plants, but need deep containers. Use regular potting soil and set the bulbs 6 inches or more deep. As soon as spring shoots appear, begin your fertilizer program, using liquid organic fertilizer. As before, do this only until buds appear, then stop feeding, but continue to keep containers moist. Asiatics and shorter hybrids make the best container plants.

Different types of lilies bloom from late spring into fall, so you can have them gracing your garden throughout the growing season.

Make your selections according to the information on height, bloom pattern, time of bloom and sun/shade preference, and be sure to work some of the fragrant hybrids into your plans. One white lily scented my house dramatically for a full week; who needs room spray?

One of my source books suggested planting tall lilies around the perimeter of rhododendrons and/or azaleas, saying that the low branches of the shrub supported the stems beautifully and that the flowering lilies, blooming before the rhodies, covered up the otherwise boring twiggy stems. Rhodies, however, like more shade than the lilies crave, and in our cold climate I’d not suggest it.

However, this might work with another shrub, such as a tall Rugosa or climbing rose in a good location.

A host of landscape flowers would welcome the enhancement of lilies, though, and Campanula, Lobelia, Nepeta, Monarda, Iris, Peony, Betony, Valerian and Veronica come to mind, along with many others, so feel free to plant a cluster of bulbs among any of these.

Valle Novak writes the Country Chef and Weekend Gardener columns for the Daily Bee. She can be reached at bcdailybee@bonnercountydailybee.com. or by phone at 208-265-4688.